Christmas in Oxfordshire

Its almost December and Christmas is just around the corner. The weather is getting colder (or should that be wetter) and the shops are filling up with tinsel and goodies for all. But for the little ones the all important bit is... Father Christmas is coming!

So where in Oxfordshire can you meet up with Father Christmas or take part in some Christmas activities?


Christmas lights are being turned on around Oxfordshire, and most towns are having special celebrations. Take a look to see when your town is being lit up.

Local family friendly Millet's Farm, for the fist year ever, have an ice rink, and it's already open. It will be there until 8 January. Santa has already arrived and his grotto will be open weekends until 10 December. From 10th December he will be in his grotto every day upto 24 December. We really want to try out that ice rink and I've been told by Millet's that's its suitable for all ages, so long as they can walk they can skate.

Oxford playhouse is showing "Where's Father Christmas?" from 11 December to 30 December (book your tickets early as it sells out). Last year we went to "Dear Father Christmas" and it was so much fun, all the kids, and adults, loved it. See our review of Dear Father Christmas.
The Playhouse also has an excellent pantomime every year and this year is Dick Whittington. Charlotte is getting to go with school and i'm so jealous, would love to go with her.

Staying on the theme of theatres the Cornerstone Didcot is showing Miki  - based on the bestselling book by Stephen Mackey. This is for 3 - 10 year old so all the family can go along from 17-23 December.
And something Charlotte spotted in a magazine is Cinderella at the Kenton Theatre, Henley on the 21-29 December. They are also showing a puppet version of Rapunzel on 9 December.

How about getting the kids to do some Christmas crafts, drop into the Oxford Town Hall between now and the 6th January. There's also local craft stalls for present ideas, costumes to try on and a tree to decorate. How about a visit to Santa in his grotto on the 15, 20, 21 & 22 December?

The Pitt Rivers Museum and Museum of Natural History are doing letters from Santa with special post boxes from 22 December - 6 January. On a side note: The Natural History museum is closing on the 30 December for a year to restore its very leaky roof. The entrance and shop will remain open and the Pitt Rivers will not be affected.

Cornerstone Cafe Bar - pop-up activity hub, Didcot, Oxfordshire

It's not often we make it along to the Orchard Centre in Didcot, but we heard about the pop-up activity hub in the Cornerstone and thought we could combine it with a bit of shopping.

You know what it's like when you're shopping, kids are getting weary and tired, you really want a coffee and rest but you know 5 minutes after you have settled, they will want to be up and about and doing something else. This is where the activity hub comes in... you get a nice and relaxing coffee and cake while they get to do some colouring, sticking and games. The kids can also enjoy things like smoothies, kids lunchboxes, cakes, fruit pots, ice creams or even candy floss.

 The Cornerstone cafe has set out special craft tables with paper, pencils, glue, sparkles, glitter, everything you need to get sticking and making. We saw plenty of kids sitting there quietly working away on their masterpieces. Dotted around tables were game classics like connect 4 or modern ones like wobbly teeth, and a giant snakes and ladders on the floor.

We then had a go at the gingerbread decorating competition (you can chose to decorate a cake too and there is a charge of £2), with lots of different icing colours and an assortment of smarties, hundreds and thousands etc. To finish off our trip Charlotte got to have some candyfloss, and we also got to watch an extremely nice man making it. The candy floss must have tasted excellent as she gobbled it down in minutes and we weren't allowed any!

It really is a fantastic idea and works so well - in fact before we knew it, our 2 hour free parking time was up and we hadn't even managed to get round to the shopping!

The activity hub is only on for 2 weeks and is now in its last few days, so hurry down there as the last day is Saturday 25th August. If it goes well Daniel, the very lovely manager, hopes to be able to run this again in other holiday seasons. We wish him every success as we would happily go back again and would love it even more if there was something like this in Abingdon.
http://www.cornerstone-arts.org/CornerstoneArtsCentreDidcot/EATANDDRINK/36944.id

The drinks and activity's were kindly provided by Daniel from Elegant Cuisine through Publicity Oxford but all views are my own.